Hunter x Hunter: 3rd Hunter Exam
by Zern
Summary: 2 years after Gon passes the Hunter Exam, a new set of teens take on the Hunter Exam. Among them is Zern Zalkalns, a 15 year-old from a clan of samurai. He has no interest in friends, but that may change after he meets Alicia. However, their new group of friends holds dark secrets that put their lives in jeopardy. Through tragedy and deception, they must prevail...or many will die.
1. Chapter 1

"Did you hear that only one kid passed the Hunter Exam last year?"

"Yeah, the first challenge was to beat five opponents and steal their ID tags. He took out every single one of them and turned in all of their ID tags."

"What kind of monster of a kid can do that?"

"I heard that he made it to the final stage of the Hunter Exam two years ago."

"So if he didn't pass but he annihilated the entire group of applicants easily, what level are the other Hunters on?"

"I don't know, but that would explain the drop in applicants this year."

"Yeah, it went from over a thousand last year to only three hundred and sixty five applicants this year!"

I stopped listening to the conversation at that point. The two applicants standing to the right of me kept on chatting about previous Hunter Exams. _"#96 and #265. No need to worry about them in the Exam's phases"._ I silently crossed them off from my potential list of rivals while I sat down on a log in an open air chamber.

My name is Zern Zalkalns. I'm fifteen years old. Although I come from a clan of samurai, children are not trained in the samurai ways until they are seventeen years old. Thus I haven't started my official grueling training yet. _"However, I am still confident in my ability to take down mostly everyone else here."_ Contrary to most samurai, I was wearing a black hooded-cloak in addition to a black shirt and black jeans.

"Hey, buddy. How's it going? I haven't seen you around here before. My name is Tonpa. What's yours?" A chubby man looked at me with a broad smile on his face. I looked up into his eyes.

"I'm Zern."

"Nice to meet you!" Tonpa exclaimed with a annoyingly happy expression, "How about a little drink to celebrate out acquaintance?" He asked while holding out an orange can of juice.

"Sorry, but I'm a soloist. I don't take any help or favors from others so I will have no incentive to help them in the future." I glared at him while slowly taking out a switchblade until he uncomfortably turned around and walked away. I made a mental note to watch out for any future deception from him. _"#36 on the watch list. Now there are 17 members as potential rivals." _Just before I was about to review the seventeen rivals, a side door in the chamber opened up.

"Prepare for the first phase of the Hunter Exam!" A little girl exclaimed as she stepped into the room. "My name is Biscuit Krueger. I'm not big on formalities, so you can call me Bisky. I am your first phase proctor!"

_"A little girl? I look older than she is! How can _she_ be a proctor?"_ I exclaimed in my mind.

"Follow me outside for a journey to the start of phase 1!" she exclaimed happily.

"Wait, this isn't the first phase yet?" an athlete, #21, questioned.

_"If it was, she wouldn't have said it, genius."_ I thought irritably. _"How could someone that needs to ask that question possibly be on my list of rivals?"_

"Well, we have quite a ways to go to get there, so let's set off!" she responded. She started out by jogging through the door. I waited until most of the applicants had made it through the door before I too set out to follow her.

After we'd been jogging for almost forty kilometers, a girl that looked to my age fell in with my jogging rhythm. "Seems she's taking us to that mountain in the distance." She mentioned aimlessly.

"Mhm."

"So….what's your name?" she inquired. I responded by accelerating until I was thirty paces ahead of her. "Hey!" she yelled angrily after she had caught up with me, "Don't you know that it's rude to walk away when someone is talking to you?"

_"#232. She is on my rival list. Better if I stay away then." _I thought before replying. "Don't _you_ know that it's rude to ask someone's name before introducing yourself?"

"Well, I'm Alicia."

"Zern."

"Kern? What an odd name."

"_Zern!_"

"Oh. Well, that is still quite odd for a name."

"I think we're done here." I said with finality before jogging far past her. Thankfully, she did not move up with me and instead she kept her current pace. _"She seems to have a fair amount of stamina, but she seems to waste some energy unnecessarily in her outbursts. She also seems to be quite strong, explains why she is on my rival list. Although, she seems to want to be friends rather than be enemies. That could complicate things. While I am fine with being enemies with everyone here, I wouldn't want to be allies with most of them. She would probably be an annoyance to me with constant talking. Although, her scarlet red eyes do seem to have more to them than what it seems at first. Her eyes gave me the feeling that she isn't all that talkative or shallow as she might let on. Plus, her brown red hair and red outfit are cute on her. Ugh! Why am I thinking of trivial things like that at a time like this?"_

"Ugh. Sorry," I groaned as I bumped into the man walking in front of me. "Excuse me, but why have we stopped jogging?"

"It appears we have arrived after the seventy kilometer jog." The musician, #67 and also on my rival list, replied.

"I see that thirty six contestants have left the competition. Now let's see how many are left after the first phase is actually over." Bisky stated with a devilish grin.

"Ugh, not more!" the musician complained.

"Everyone take a shovel. You're objective is to…dig!"

"Wait, what?" I heard someone call out near the front of the pack.

"That's right. Dig." Bisky restated. "Each of you will take a shovel, and each of you will start digging in their own hole. Once you've dug deep enough, you will arrive in a large underground chamber, where the second phase of the Hunter Exam will begin. Now, everyone grab a shovel."

I proceeded to grab a shovel and return to a spot a few meters behind where I heard Bisky's announcement. Soon after, I saw that numbers #21, #67, and #232 prepared to dig near me.

"Hey you guys!" #21 said with a smile, "my name is Adam."

"Hi! I'm Alicia!" the peppy Alicia exclaimed.

"I guess introductions are a good start to a _beautiful_ friendship. The name's Excallit." #67 stated with a huge emphasis on "beautiful".

"Zern." I whispered dully after a sigh while never looking up at the others.

"Sorry, he's not much of a people person," Alicia mocked. I responded by glaring at her while the others just laughed.

"Well, I'll look forward to seeing you guys on the other side!" Adam told us through a broad smile.

"I see that everyone has a shovel. That's great!" Bisky smirked, "Now, get ready to dig. You can start…Now!"


	2. Chapter 2

For several moments the air was replaced by the soil of the unfertile land. The orchestra of shovels digging into the dirt was so sloppy and revolting that I almost groaned out loud. _"This monotonous drone of sounds should suffice as a nice time to just think. So let me review my 'friends' that I have made. There's Excallit, who says the cheesiest things. I secretly think that he is waiting for me to vomit soon from his terrible emphasis on words. Then there's Adam, who has an '_adorable_'_ _quality that just makes me want to stab him with my uchigatana. And last but not least, there's Alicia. She's pretty cute, but I have the feeling that one wrong move may put me on me on the unpleasant side of a coffin. She also seems to have a sort of positive atmosphere around her that makes me want to be happy even when I know that I don't want to make any friends. Maybe I should-"_ "Omph!" I grunted with surprise.

"Sorry, Zern." Excallit's voice resounded in the hole.

"Get. Off. Me." I snarled.

"S-sorry," he stammered. "I was digging in my own hole when I suddenly hit steel. I couldn't dig down or in most directions, so I dug in the only direction I could. And that path dropped me down in this hole, or rather, on top of you."

"I noticed."

"Well at least now we can work _together_ to dig faster and more efficiently!" Excallit beamed.

"I guess you make a good point," I conceded. "Hey, do you know how far we've dug by now?"

"If I had to guess, I would say we've dug thirteen kilometers by now."

"We've dug that far? And _down_?" I muttered in exasperation.

"Yeah, but how much farther do you think we will have to dig?" Excallit questioned.

I calculated carefully in my head before responding. "Well, judging from previous data, I would assume that we will have to dig seventy kilometers."

"Uhh, how did you figure that out?"

"Simple. The preliminary first phase was a seventy kilometer run. That gives the actual first phase a larger chance of being a seventy kilometer dig. Furthermore, when we came here, we first jogged up a mountain. Since mountains are larger pieces of the earth's crust, it is possible to have us dig down seventy kilometers to reach our destination." I explained carefully.

"But surely they can't expect us to be able to accomplish this feat, right?" he asked, bewildered.

"A hunter should be able to do any of the tasks put into place by the Exam Committee, no matter how difficult the task may be."

"But-" he started to speak.

"Please just shut up while we dig. Is that okay?" I irritably asked.

"Okay. I guess that's-" I interrupted his sentence with a harsh glare. Thankfully, this _finally_ got him to stop talking to me.

I estimated that we got to dig twenty-six kilometers more in silence before the silence was abruptly broken, again. This time, it was Adam who decided to come in and join the 'party'. After a brief discussion, we found out that the way Adam ended up in our hole was the same way that Excallit ended up in mine. "Wait a minute. If both of you were funneled into my pit, that must've been on purpose." I pondered out loud.

"It's probably so there will be predetermined teams in the next phase." Adam intelligently concluded. I must've let out a fairly loud groan, because Adam quickly assured me. "Don't you worry! We won't bring each other down. In fact, we will become the best team ever!"

"Hey, Excallit. Kill me now. I don't want to team up with a positive maniac." I mocked.

"Sorry, Zern. I happen to think that this idea is just _splendid_." Excallit said with his annoying emphasis while we continued to dig.

"Right now, I hate the both of you." I growled.

"Oh, calm down," Adam started, "It'll be alri-"

Suddenly, it was our turn to take the plunge. All I could think about when we were falling into another hole under us was one thing. _"These idiots are the reason why we are falling to our deaths right now. What a great way to die. Thanks, as-_"

"Omph! Do you guys wanna get off of me or just lay there like creeps?" I heard Alicia's voice call out inside of the pile of bodies. I felt two bodies slowly peel themselves off of me before I was able to peel my body off of Alicia.

"Ugh. Sorry about that, Alicia." I apologized without making eye contact.

"I'm sure you guys fell on me on purpose, perverts," She mocked.

"Hey!" Adam defiantly started to defend himself.

"There's no use in arguing," I cut in. "She's a loon."

"Aww, you're just salty 'cuz I beat you in getting farther down, even though you had help," she teased.

"N-No!" I stammered my embarrassed reply.

"Whatever," she interjected. "Let's just focus on getting to the end of this." At that note, we all started digging in unison.

Soon enough, I started to notice that the heat was rising. A few minutes after I made this observation, I noticed that I was actually sweating while digging! I nervously looked around to make sure that no one knew that I was sweating when I noticed that they were also glistening with disgusting, rancid sweat. I was about to ask how far down we were when Excallit voiced the question for me.

"About sixty-two kilometers down," Adam replied.

"So about eight more kilometers to dig?" Excallit avoided doing the mental math himself for some reason.

"Wait, why do you think that we need to dig seventy kilometers?" Alicia asked, obviously puzzled.

"Seventy kilometer run, might as well have a seventy kilometer dig from atop a mountain," I summed up.

"I guess that makes sense." Still obviously puzzled, she leaned back on her shovel. Suddenly, her shovel seemed to sink into the dirt and the floor under us collapsed. Again. This time, I was able to track that we fell the remaining eight kilometers before I was able to stop my fall by grapping onto rocks in the dirt walls. I observed that Adam landed face first on the ground, Excallit landed right on his butt, and Alicia landed gracefully with a roll to absorb the impact before I too dropped down and landed easily on my two feet.

After I finished dusting my coat of dirt off, I looked up at the cavern before me. I would say that my mouth dropped in astonishment of the surprising splendor, but instead my mouth dropped from seeing so many people make it through the first stage of extremely high temperatures so close to the earth's mantle just to end up in a dusty, filthy, dirt cavern. It seemed that we had some time before the next phase would begin, so I took the luxury of being able to sit down in a secluded area for some peace and quiet, away from my new 'friends' of course.

_"Looks like all my rivals are still in the exam,"_ I observed. _"I guess they should be. That _is_ why they are on the list, after all." _My brief solitude was interrupted when I heard the soft _thud_ of Alicia's jet black boots. When I looked up, her crimson short-sleeved jacket, swirled black and red shirt design, and red and black striped long pants confirmed my doubt. So, still not looking up at her face, I got up with a sigh and started to leave just as she plopped herself down on the ground next to where I was sitting.

"Hey!" she pouted as she grabbed my arm and pulled my back against the wall brutally. "I'm just trying to make friends, you know."

"I know, and I'm not interested," I rudely replied.

"I don't repulse you, do I?" she inquired quietly. Hearing the disappointment in her voice melted my spirit a fraction of a percent, so I decided to stay where I was and sit with her.

I must've dozed off, because I awoke to someone's voice announcing the start of the second phase. "I welcome all two hundred and eighty-eight contestants here to the second phase of the Hunter Exam! I am your proctor, Herbert!" My eyes finally tracked the speaker. He was a short and fat man that I was sure couldn't have what it takes to be an examiner. "This is a particularly fun phase!" he spoke again. "In this phase, each contestant will team up with either the group of contestants that he or she entered this cavern with, or the nearest group considering time of completion. Each team will consist of four members, each with a belt that holds one flag on it. The requirement to pass this phase is to simply acquire eight flags for your team. It doesn't matter whether you keep your flags or not, simply be in possession of eight by the end of the seven day period of this phase. When each team is in front of their designated door, a room will be opened to them that contains the belts and flags. Once inside, there will be a five minute waiting period for each team before they can start the phase. Then each team is free to use whatever tactic they want to secure their flags. I wish the best of luck to each team!" On that note he started to leave the room.

After he finished talking, I spotted Adam and Excallit walking toward me with broad grins on their faces. At the same moment, I finally wondered why my whole view of everything was sideways. As I looked up at Alicia's face, I realized with horror that my head was resting on Alicia's lap. I quickly scrambled off of her and looked to the ground beside me, my face completely flushed.

"It's okay, I didn't mind," Alicia whispered before Adam and Excallit were within earshot. My eyes met her gaze and I realized that she was also blushing.

Before I could apologize, Adam mocked. "Alicia and Zern, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g." Together, he and Excallit shared a laugh at Alicia's and my expense. I quickly tried to compose myself, and failed, while I moved to the door nearest to us.

Before the door opened, but when we were all in front of it, I heard Herbert's voice call out. "Oh, one last thing! Remember, teamwork is the key! Let the second phase of the Hunter Exam begin!"

"Damn," I muttered under my breath at the depressing thought of teamwork.


End file.
